


101 Paopu Fruit Recipes

by tweleeve



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, M/M, give me more awkward teen riku, will add characters as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-17 04:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14180283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tweleeve/pseuds/tweleeve
Summary: "Paopu is the most diverse fruit available on Destiny Islands, carefully harvested and sold in stores or just plain grown in one's backyard. With its health benefits and many uses, it's almost a necessity to familiarize yourself with this wonder-fruit. Whether you're a novice just beginning your kitchen journey, or an expert seeking fresh ideas, 101 Paopu Recipes has you covered!"A collection of very self-indulgent ficlets, mostly Kairi/Sora/Riku and Riku/Sora...Apologies in advance for the cheese.





	1. Candied

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-DDD setting.

**101 Paopu Fruit Recipes**

* * *

Recipe 1: Candied

 _“Peel two medium-sized, ripe paopu before dicing into small chunks. Boil 1 cup sugar and 2 cups water over high heat. Slowly add paopu chunks and stir until all pieces are evenly distributed under sugar water. Boil for 5 minutes before reducing heat to medium for another 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and move pot off the burner, setting for 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to jars once fully cooled and seal until snack time.”_  


* * *

Letting out a strangled yelp, Kairi ducked sideways to avoid another one of Sora’s spinning Fire spells. She hastily countered with a small but sturdy Reflect, managing to escape the residual flames unlike his last attack that most definitely singed the end of her already abused ponytail.

“Oops — S-sorry Kairi! I didn’t mean to get so close!” Sora looked genuinely contrite, Keyblade angled behind his legs in shame.

Kairi swiped a wrist at the sweat beading on her forehead while shooting her friend a grin, “It’s ok! Did you see that Reflect? It was way stronger than the last one!” She pumped one fist in the air excitedly as Riku stood from a crouch several feet away and walked over. He nudged her arm, holding out a fist, “Way stronger,” he agreed. She gladly knocked her own hand into his with a grin.

Kairi's joy fled as soon as she caught a whiff of what was definitely wood burning. Peeking behind her shoulder to see one of the Tower’s many shrubs lit with a steadily growing flame, she felt her stomach drop.

“Um…Guys?” She asked, taking a half-step back.

Sora followed her concerned gaze half way before coming to a jerking halt, “W-wait a sec…I’m supposed to meet Goofy and Donald in Radiant Garden today!” He yelled, quickly dashing over to the far — mostly unscorched — end of the field where his discarded jacket lay crumpled in a ball. Kairi watched him grab it before shooting another worried glance at the burning shrub next to her.

“So…Is there a spell for this?” She asked Riku, wincing when one of the tiny branches broke off and turned to ash before it could hit the ground. Riku stood with hunched shoulders next to her, grimacing at the smoking plant. Sora muttered something like, _"I can't belive I forgot, Donald's gonna be SO mad!"_ in the background. Riku and Kairi continued to stare at the smoking shrub.

“Uh -“ Riku didn’t get far before Sora darted over, giving Kairi a quick peck on the cheek and then grabbing the other teen's shoulder to pull him down into a kiss. He didn’t linger long, continuing his run towards the Tower with a brief wave over one shoulder. Kairi waved back, knowing Sora was no doubt heading upstairs to beg Yen Sid for a quick Portal to Radiant Garden.

When the Tower doors clicked shut behind the brunet, she looked back at the shrub to instead find a blackened patch where it used to be. With a single soft breeze, any lingering smoke and ash dispersed, causing the anxious feeling in her stomach to grow.

“…Whoops. Hey, Riku, are we supposed to like…I dunno…Can we, like, plant a new one, maybe?” She asked, dreading the stern talking they would receive from Yen Sid. Technically they had a training room for a reason, but they all preferred to be outdoors most of the time, anyway. She continued to formulate an excuse in her head, looking over at her friend for support.

Instead of worrying over the scorched ground, Riku was still staring after the doors Sora had disappeared into. He made a strangled noise not far from what Kairi imagined a sad puppy might utter - or maybe a wounded cat, actually - before moving towards the steps himself.

Kairi followed, watching him flop down near the top. She idly brushed at the dirtied front of her shirt, quickly dropping her hand with an annoyed frown when she realized the dirt was actually a singe mark. _‘Another shirt for the garbage bin,’_ she mused glumly. Leveraging the same hand on Riku’s right shoulder once she was close enough, Kairi used it as support to drop onto the step next to him.

“Cute boyfriend - where’d you two meet?” She asked after a second of silence, peering at her friend subtly out the corner of her eye while hiding the twitch of her lips poorly.

Lea stepped out the large doors behind them just in time to catch Riku jerk away from Kairi and stare at her in a mixture of betrayal and the kind of disgust reserved for when someone you know really well tells a particularly unfunny joke.

“You - Kairi, _shut up_ -“

Lea frowned, walking up behind the other redhead and nudging her in the back with his knee, “I thought we agreed to only tease Riku when we’re _both_ present. Don’t steal these simple joys from me, Kairi! I’ll have nothing else to live for!” He whined, pushing his other knee to Kairi’s back until she was almost doubling over in attempt to support his weight.

“Lea get off,” she grunted, sucking in a breath when he eventually complied, “I just couldn’t resist! The moment was there, Lea, it was perfect!”

“You’re both terrible. This is terrible. I’m going to leave now.”

“Riku who asked you for your opinion?”

“Ugh, Kairi, _you_ -“

Lea idly scratched his cheek as Riku stood, Kairi quickly doing the same and flinging an arm over his shoulder - as well as she could, at least, being a good head-and-a-half shorter. She managed to hook her wrist around his neck enough to bring him down for a playful kiss on the cheek, “I tease because I love you, Riku, you know!”

Riku let out a sigh, looking a little less exasperated and a little more fond, “Well..."

Lea had to quickly lean back to avoid a whack to his face as the girl suddenly retracted her arm from around Riku’s neck, instead grabbing for Lea's wrist. She moved quickly towards the Tower’s looming doors, dragging Lea with startling strength.

“Not as much as _Sora_ loves you, though!”

Her giggles - _cackles_ , Lea corrected in his head, definitely cackles - didn’t quite drown out Riku’s frustrated groan as the two redheads entered the Tower before Riku could exact any sort of revenge.

* * *

_“Candied paopu makes a wonderful treat: sweet and perfectly chewy for a one-of-a-kind snack!”_


	2. Ice Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to Radiant Garden post-DDD, pre-KHIII.

**101 Paopu Fruit Recipes**

* * *

Recipe 2: Ice Cream

_“Peel 4 large paopu and crush in a mixing bowl. Add 1 cup paopu fruit juice, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, stir until blended. Pour into saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until all sugar has dissolved. Reduce heat to a simmer. While mixture is simmering, combine 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of paopu juice in a mixing bowl until dissolved, adding to the simmering mixture. Stir for 5 minutes before turning off the heat. In a different saucepan boil 1 1/2 cups milk. Whisk 2 eggs yolks, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and a sprinkle of salt into the milk. After 3 minutes, run milk mixture through a fine mesh strainer and then stir into the pot of paopu. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and 1 cup heavy cream. Chill for 5 hours. Run through your ice cream maker and then transfer to a sealed container before freezing.”_  


* * *

Riku carefully stepped over another piece of stone rubble while staring at the card in his hand. _Radiant Garden Restoration Committee Honorary Member_ it stated in strong font, an outline of the town’s tallest tower printed behind it. On the back, **_RIKU_** was carefully drawn over the name field in Sora’s blocky handwriting. Riku thumbed over his name once with a sigh before shoving it in his back pocket.

Where Sora snagged the card from, Riku wasn’t sure. As soon as _Highwind_ departed Yen Sid’s Tower, Sora slipped him and Kairi their own membership cards with a tiny grin and ‘shush shush’ motion. _Highwind_ reached Radiant Garden a short time after, Kairi running off with a wave the second her feet touched ground. Sora waved back blithely while completely unaware of Riku’s troubled frown… He was stuck between worrying about Kairi wandering through the town alone and acknowledging the fact she could very well protect herself nowadays. He couldn't dwell over his worries long before Sora tasked him with locating the other Restoration Committee members. He tried to convince the younger keyblade wielder why this was a bad idea - point one being, Riku had no clue where to even begin, but Sora remained unconcerned. The brunet merely told him to start in the newest construction zone with a vague gesture towards the Bailey before jogging off, only succeeding in raising Riku’s blood pressure. 

Thus, Riku found himself wandering through the still-destroyed Bailey’s various piles of debris for ten minutes. Eventually a faint sound of clanging metal and whine of machinery caught his attention further west. Riku could just make out a gated exit made of various materials embedded in the blue cliffside, clearly put there to keep unauthorized individuals from wandering out. He remembered Sora explaining on the _Highwind_ that the further away you were from the town proper the less safe it became. The likelihood of encountering some form of Heartless or simply the dangers of construction zones in general increased the more you explored outward, meaning the Restoration Committee kept most areas leading from town heavily gated.

Obviously sound meant people, so Riku shrugged to himself and navigated through more rubble until he came upon the gates. After a moment of searching he spotted a small metal box leading to whatever mechanism kept everything tightly locked down. Pulling his membership card out and flipping it over, Riku spotted a black strip under his name. He swiped it through the small box, not expecting much but making a pleased noise when both gates groaned open. He pocketed his card once more before stepping through curiously.

Several feet in, a group of five people stood watching over an old automated crane as it dutifully lifted various rusting pieces of metal into a growing pile.

“I dunno,” one of the people - a long-haired brunet wearing a dark skirt and gloves - spoke up, “do we really want to keep clearing westward when north of the town is already outgrowing its designated space?”

“It might be growing fast, but once we finish repairing the Bailey and eventually clear the old castle entrance, we’ll have more space to work with at once than the north has to offer overall,” a different brunet, one with a fur-lined jacket, explained. The first brunet hmm’d, chin in hand, before conceding with a short nod.

“Well _hi_ there. You must be new, ‘cuz I sure haven’t had the pleasure of seeing your arms around here before. _I’m_ the Great Ninja Yuffie and _you’re_ gonna give me your name, right?”

Riku’s brain tried very hard to catch up with the whirlwind of a person suddenly in front of him. He took what he hoped was a subtle step back until the distance between them was a little more comfortable. 

“I, uh…Wait, did you say Yuffie?” Riku asked, breaking away from her unnervingly mischievous gaze so he could take another look at the group behind her. They had clearly abandoned crane watching in favor of regarding Riku curiously. 

“So you’ve heard of me, eh?” The woman-named-Yuffie grinned broadly, fists on her hips and chest puffed in pride.

“Uhh well…Kind of? If you’re Yuffie, then they must be…Leon, Aerith, Tifa, and Cloud…Right?” He looked at each of them briefly, “…Right?”

Aerith responded first with a warm smile, “Right! You must be Riku, then? Sora’s friend? He told us he would be visiting with you today,” she admitted.

Yuffie made a disgruntled sort of noise, brows furrowed. Before she could say anything however, she and the Restoration Committee’s various members were caught off guard when Riku dipped his head down.

“Thank you,” he began “for taking Kairi in, and for being there for Sora when I was- when I wasn’t,” he trailed off in a soft murmur. Aerith glanced at Leon - who unhelpfully raised his eyebrows back - before covering the short distance between her and the young keyblade master so she could set a hand on his shoulder, urging him upwards.

“No need to thank us. It’s what we do!“ she insisted. Riku seemed to accept her words after a moment, opening his mouth to thank the group once more. 

“Hang on, hang on. If you’re friends with that twerp, then - how _old_ are you?” Yuffie cut in. She stared expectantly at Riku, one eyebrow twitching just the slightest when the teen only stared at her, confusion obvious.

He leaned back slightly to distance himself from her serious gaze, “Uh…I’ll be 18 in a few months? Why?” 

Jumping in surprise when Yuffie let out a disbelieving _"Huuuh?"_ \- _these were the people he left Kairi and Sora with?_ \- “You’re kidding me - Leon - _Leon_ , I am pretty sure his biceps are bigger than _yours_ and he’s saying he's seventeen? Is this a joke?” She pointed accusingly at Riku who grew increasingly concerned with each word, “Are you messing with me?”

“Uh…No? I mean, I’m pretty sure our worlds’ calendars work similarly if Sora described them to me correctly…”

Yuffie opened her mouth once again while Leon brought a palm to cover his eyes, nearly dragging it down his face in tired resignation. Grinning, Tifa nudged Cloud in the arm and tilted her head as if to say _“Never a dull moment?”_ when he merely looked at her in question.

“Heeey!”

Each person present turned toward the construction site entrance in time to see its heavy gates swing shut behind a grinning Sora. He bounded over quickly, grabbing one of Riku’s hands when he was close enough to pass over a twice-bitten stick of yellow ice cream. 

“You found everyone, awesome! Here, here, try this?”

“I thought you were looking for some Gummi mechanic, not grabbing a snack…” Riku muttered without heat. 

“Mm well this was more of a gift, you know? I ran into Mr. Scrooge and he told me about their new flavors! He offered a sample and I couldn’t turn him down right? It’s pretty good, not super sweet so I think you’ll like it,” Sora rambled. He nudged Riku’s hand up again when all the older teen did was stare, pushing the cold treat insistently toward’s his mouth, “Tryyy iiit!”

While Riku was busy dealing with Sora’s persistent nudging, Leon walked over so he could rest a hand on the younger’s head and muss his hair roughly, “Sora - stop taking things when Cid slips them to you. I told him not to give you membership cards for Riku or Kairi until we could properly meet them,” the older brunet lectured sternly, pinning the teen with a _look_. 

His intended effect was immediately ruined when Cloud cut in, “Don’t pretend to be tough when you have gifts saved for the kid back at Merlin’s, Leon.” He scoffed, unimpressed, when Leon turned the _look_ his way.

_“What even is going on?”_ Yuffie whined. She blew out a sigh when nobody answered, each of them too busy watching Sora pump his fist in success as Riku finally gave in and took a bite of the ice cream.

“Ah…It’s good.”

“I told ya!”

* * *

_“Paopu ice cream is a wonderful warm-weather snack. Milk and paopu blend together for a creamy, mild burst of fruity sweetness sure to please any cold treat fan!”_


End file.
